Doritos – Spicy Sour Flavour (Israel Market)
Bitter: 🟡🟡○○○
Salty: 🟡🟡🟡🟡○
Sour/Tangy:🟡🟡🟡○○
Sweet: 🟡🟡🟡○○
Umami: 🟡🟡🟡○○
Heat: 🟡○○○○○○○○○
Quick Flavor Notes: Sweet, sour, garlic
Recommended: Conditional
Texture: Somewhat crunchy
Ingredients: Yellow Corn, Sunflower Oil, Maltodextrin, Hydrolyzed Corn Protein, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Potassium Chloride, Malic Acid, Sodium Diacetate, Paprika, Colored with Turmeric, Disodium Guanylate, Disodium Inosinate, Sucralose, Artificial Flavors
I like to walk down the international aisle at the grocery store in order to see if there’s anything new and fun to try. Often it’s just new British cookies but on a recent trip these caught my eye. Apparently I didn’t look very closely as I assumed the writing on the bag was Thai script and that the “spicy and sour” flavor might be Thai seafood sauce flavor. Getting them home I realized it was actually Hebrew and that I had picked up an Israeli flavor. Israel isn’t the first place I’d have thought of as to have their own special-market Doritos flavor but thinking more about it it does make sense as with Jewish Kosher dietary requirements perhaps there are things in regular Doritos that don’t make the cut. Regardless, I was excited to give these a try.
Kosher food isn’t a style that I’ve ever considered to be particularly spicy, but a lot of that may be due to the Jewish population of the USA which is predominantly Ashkenazi hailing from Europe so what we associate with Jewish cuisine are primarily things like cured meats and fish, braised brisket, knishes, and bagels. A large portion of the global Jewish community however is from the middle-east, and I’ve even tried a hot sauce that was originally created by the Jewish community in Yemen, Shuug. I was wondering if these might be similar though the bag ingredients don’t elucidate much. Starting with corn, as makes sense, fried in sunflower oil the only named flavorings are onion powder, garlic powder, and malic acid, which like citric acid is a souring agent used in many foods. Sodium diacetate, which is a salt form of acetic acid, adds additional sourness. These also include popular umami boosters such as disodium guanylate and disodium inosinate though strangely MSG is absent which usually accompanies the other two. Sucralose adds sweetness, something I wouldn’t expect from a chip sold as sour and spicy. What I don’t see, however, are any chile peppers listed. There are “artificial flavors” listed at the end so perhaps there’s some pepper extract hidden in there.
Texturally these seem to be not quite as crunchy as the typical American Doritos and the color is also much less neon. The aroma is much more corn-forward. The flavor is also very corn-forward, much more-so than American Dorito flavors that I’ve tried. The sweetness from the Sucralose is prominent which gives these almost a sweet corn flavor. There’s more sour here than spicy though the sourness does taste more natural than it does in sour candies which tend to rely entirely on citric acid for their sourness. There is a hint of capsaicin-based spice so it does seem to be that these do sneak some chile pepper extract in with the artificial flavors. The onion and garlic do help round the flavors out and keep these from being sour-dominant though those flavors mixed with the sweetness aren’t my favorite combination. Overall the flavor of these is less intense than American Doritos, closer to the level of what Taco Bell uses with the Doritos Locos tacos which have always seemed to be a bit blander than the flavor they’re supposed to copy, though the natural corn flavor in these is quite nice.
I’m glad that I picked these up and got to try them but they won’t be a re-buy for me. I’m not the biggest Doritos fan in general but I was hoping for an exciting flavor-packed international flavor. While these were unique the flavor was more muted and subtle than what I would personally desire for an international chip. If you’re a big fan of corn flavor however these may be right up your alley, so I’ll give these a conditional recommendation.
